Hope is for burial in Jerusalem ... eventually

Page Tools

Yasser Arafat's funeral will begin with him lying in state in
Cairo, followed by interment at the Mukata, the ruined fort in the
West Bank city of Ramallah where he was confined for the last two
years.

Israel's security cabinet agreed to let him be buried in the
former British fort after refusing to allow a burial in Jerusalem's
Old City.

But Arafat's aides said he would be buried in a stone coffin,
not a wooden one, to allow his re-interment later at the Al-Aqsa
Mosque compound in Jerusalem, Islam's third-holiest shrine.

His body will be flown to Cairo after leaders of the main
Palestinian parties accepted an offer from Egypt to hold the first
part of the funeral. This arrangement avoids the difficulties that
would arise if the ceremony took place in the West Bank. Egypt has
the means of organising an international, political event at short
notice, and is an acceptable venue for the ideologically assorted
VIPs who are expected to attend.

Israel has said it will allow Israeli Arabs and West Bank
Palestinians to attend the burial in Ramallah. Apart from a handful
of senior officials, people living in the Gaza Strip will not be
permitted to travel.

The Mukata is weighted with symbolism. It was besieged three
times in 2002 by Israeli troops, who reduced it to rubble, leaving
only a small block containing Mr Arafat's office and living space.
Since then he had been confined there, worried that if he left the
Israelis would not allow him back.

To Arafat loyalists the Mukata is an emblem of his
steadfastness. To others it is metaphor for his ability to block
progress and create a climate of violence and destruction.

Israel ruled out a Jerusalem burial because it feared it would
undermine its claims to sovereignty over all of the city.

"The final resting place will be the Al-Aqsa Mosque," said the
Palestinian cabinet minister Saeb Erekat. "One of these days, we
will have a Palestinian state, and President Arafat will be laid to
rest [in Jerusalem]."